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How terribly sad that you appear to regard it as a battle or a war instead of an exciting and creative process in which there is something new to explore each day

"Nick Shay, is an expert in waste management. He confronts the basic crisis of our disposable consumer economy: what to do with the inexhaustible mountains of toxic garbage generated every day. Nick believes that "waste is a religious thing. We entomb contaminated waste with a sense of reverence and dread. It is necessary to respect what we discard." Although his job forces him to consider the collective refuse of American culture, the great impasto that binds us all together as a nation, Nick's upbringing still shapes his approach to the problem. "The Jesuits taught me to examine things for second meanings and deeper connections. Were they thinking about waste? We were waste managers, waste giants, we processed universal waste." Again speaking of the Disneyland that is America, Baudrillard discovers "a space of the regeneration of the imaginary as waste-treatment plants are elsewhere, and even here. Everywhere today one must recycle waste, and the dreams, the phantasms, the historical, fairylike, legendary imaginary of children and adults is a waste product, the first great toxic excrement of a hyperreal civilization." Whereas Jack Gladney in White Noise sought through the superabundance of noise for hidden messages, scraps of meaning, Nick Shay sifts through the mountainous remains of American culture for a few slips of sublime dream-life that might give his existence meaning. "

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I agree with Brian in regards the "kinda old" comment. I'd say the subject has been pretty fully debated and we can just look it up in the archives (see the posting guidelines--please!) and hopefully avoid more threads on which is better. I like the equipment and technique posts, whether trad or digital, but endless, repetitive vituperation is tiresome.

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...any man's death diminishes me..."

I gravitated here because I became a 4x5 hobbyist a while ago. And I have to say I enjoy the philosophical discussions, the pondering of imponderables, and the occasional noble slaying of dragons. Those threads can be intoxicating, like beer, and sometimes you pipe in because you can't help yourself, and you get slammed as a dumb ass or (worse) shunned like you sat down at the wrong lunch table in the high school cafeteria.

Yes, passions run high at times, and some people can't resist pushing other people's buttons. But, like Paddy suggests, I find nuggets of wisdom here and there, and always a prevailing sense of humor.